Show Info
Press Photos

Never, in the history of the Burke Museum, have representatives from seven different First Nations gathered on one stage for a contemporary music and performance event like this. On November 20th at 7:30 pm, the Burke will hold a unique concert at Meany Hall: Tribute to the Spirit: Little Big Band. It features the musical, dance and storytelling talents of Grammy Award-winning singer, Star Nayea; Tlingit storyteller, actor, musician, and motivational speaker, Gene Tagaban; electric bassist and celebrated Tlingit glass artist, Preston Singletary; violinist and comic Swil Kanim, and many others. These seasoned performers with over 150 years of combined experience, and veterans of many national tours, will combine the best of blues, rock, spoken word and jazz with deep resonances of their traditional culture. The combination is uplifting, evocative and a stinging rebuke to anyone who believes the Native culture has faded away.

Tribute to the Spirit: Little Big Band is an unprecedented gathering of Native American performers who are coming together to commemorate the end of the 100th Anniversary year of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition (A-Y-P). This concert comes at a time when Northwest Native Americans are poised to honor the resurgent spirit that flows through their communities today. The Tribute to the Spirit: Little Big Band November 20th concert and the related A-Y-P Symposium on November 21st, complement the Burke Museum's current exhibit A-Y-P: Indigenous Voices Reply. The exhibit, concert, and free A-Y-P Symposium are all part of the citywide 100th anniversary of The Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition. The Burke's A-Y-P: Indigenous Voices Reply exhibit highlights sixteen contemporary artists who respond to the way that indigenous peoples were represented in the 1909 fair. The November 20th concert serves as a performance-based continuation of those responses, and features several Native American artists who are also represented in the Burke exhibit.

Tickets to the November 20th event are on sale now at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/80165 or by phone at (206) 616-6473.Tickets are $20 for adults; $10 for Burke Members and $5 for youth and students 18 & over with ID. $17 tickets are available over the phone for groups of 10 or more.

RELATED EVENT
Free to the Public
A-Y-P Symposium, Sat., Nov. 21, 2009
9:30 am – 4:15 pm
UW campus Seattle; Kane Hall – Room 110

This one-day free public symposium features keynote speaker Dr. Robert Rydell, the premier World's Fair historian, and examines the portrayal of indigenous cultures in the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (A-Y-P) and other world's fairs of that time. The Symposium is supported by the Simpson Center for the Humanities. Speakers include:

• Robin Wright, Burke Museum Curator of Native American Art, speaks on cultural appropriation and misappropriation at the
A-Y-P.

• Kate Duncan, Professor of Art History at Arizona State University, discusses her research on Seattle's Olde Curiosity Shoppe and A-Y-P.

• Jon Olivera, UW Graduate Student in History, examines Philippines cultures' portrayal in Worlds Fairs.

• Jayme Yahr, UW Graduate Student in Art History, discusses indigenous peoples' portrayal at A-Y-P.

• Nadia Jackinsky, UW Graduate Student in Art History, discusses Alaskan Native peoples' portrayal at A-Y-P.

• Deana Dartt-Newton, Burke Museum Curator of Native American Ethnology, discusses California cultures' representation at the A-Y-P and the cultural revitalization of indigenous canoe traditions.